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Last updated on Thursday, July 26, 2018
(HAMMOND) - An Indiana woman who says she was held in a Kurdish detention camp with her four children after her husband died fighting for the Islamic State group remains in custody after being charged with lying to the FBI.
U.S. attorney's office spokesman Ryan Holmes says 32-year-old Samantha Elhassani appeared in court for an initial hearing Wednesday and was appointed a public defender.
Elhassani told PBS' "Frontline" and the BBC in April that during a 2015 vacation in Turkey, her Moroccan husband tricked her into traveling with their children to Syria, where he became an Islamic State militant and died fighting. She and the children ended up in a Kurdish detention camp and were transferred to U.S. custody.
Court documents unsealed Tuesday show the Elkhart woman was indicted in March. They don't include details.
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